I am in NYC for a conference and planned to bring just the ipad. In a constant aim to decrease the amount of gadgets I carry across the pond, I thought hoped that the iPad could do all my blogging, reading and entertaining as I travelled.

Sadly not. Not yet. So I wrote five reasons why not. Some are hardware issues, others are interface issues but here goes..

1. No camera. To me that was the killer reason I couldn’t run it alone. I travel, I miss my family and I want to see them. For that alone I will carry another laptop. The fact that there is no camera and no iChat function are major issues. I have been advised there is an app called Camera A Camera B which can somehow wireless sync with the ipad but I haven’t tried. It all sounds a bit Heath Robinson really.

2. Poor Wifi. Even if I could iChat the poor wifi thingy means it cannot pick up the hotel network in certain parts of the room. So unless I was chained to a certain spot (which of course turns out to be the bathroom) then I can’t use it. Placing the laptop and the iPad next to each other shows me a huge disparity in signal strength which I hope is fixed in the next generation.

3. Content Creation – Typing. If you put the iPad into landscape mode you can get a relatively quick typing speed but still less than 50% of the speed I can do on the keyboard. So, when I am in a conference it is great for taking notes but not so good for long stretches of writing. I bought the wireless keyboard and a cover/stand for the iPad which means I can do proper typing – the only flaw was I couldn’t use Bluetooth on the flight so I needed the laptop for productivity in the air.

4. Content Creation – Blogging. The WordPress App has been updated to offer full iPad support which means I can write blogs and edit blogs within the app. However, if we look past the typing issue, I still have trouble with links and importing images. If I want to link to something in the article I need to have it copied somewhere, or copy it straight from the browser. But as I am not in the browser, I have to save my work, exit the app, find the link, copy it and go back to the blogging. Not conducive to deep content writing. The image inclusion is also a pain unless you already have the images uploaded to your blog.

5. You Tube management. If you don’t do much video then this isn’t really an issue. This morning I launched a video but it was still locked. I jumped onto the YouTube app and could see my video but could not edit the properties of the video. Trying through Safari gave me the same block so I had to run upstairs, jump on the laptop and fix it.

What the iPad is great for is content consumption. I am reading more than I have done in a long time, although in more silo based consumption which is a step backward, but that’s another article for another site.

I still love the iPad no question, it shouldn’t stop you buying one but as a content creation tool, it still needs work.

This was written on the laptop!

Zynga‘s announcement of the Farmville iPhone app will be seen by some as just another game release. But this is actually a very important move from one of the most important social media companies in 2010.

I have always thought Apple should have their own search engine. Way back when Altavista was being snapped up by Overture (then swallowed by Yahoo) I thought Apple should be in the search engine market. I still do, so here are five reasons why Apple should have its own search engine.

[Disclaimer: I own a few hundred shares in AAPL. These ideas are my own.]

1. Revenue

We know that Apple’s core source of revenue of hardware sales which is not about to change. However, stock market analysts Trefis suggest that 8.2% of Apple’s share valuation comes from App related income.

This is an income stream that has been around for about two years, in which time the share price has risen from $96 per share to $270 per share (date: 26 April 2010). Now this share boost cannot be attributed to the apps alone (lest we forget countless iPhone releases and the iPad) we can see that new income streams are helping grow the overall size of the company and diversify the revenue streams away from just hardware income.

Creating a search engine that sold ads, on competition with Yahoo, Google and Microsoft could create another source of income that would be valuable to the long term business of Apple.

2. Consumer Relationship Channels

If we look at Google for a minute, we can see that Google started with a pure search engine, then added other search related services before expanding to offer blogging tools, and productivity apps to compete with Microsoft and Apple. Google Apps like Google Docs and Google Mail work to bring the user relationship closer to the ‘start’ of their online behaviour as well as working to retain them for longer [and know more about the user through smart data management.] The development of Chrome Browser, the OS, the Nexus One and the rumoured iPad challenger are all reasons for Google to grow the relationship with the consumer to boost its core business of search related advertising.

Why is this relevant to Apple? Because Apple already has those channels and more. They have the top selling mobile Internet device, known as the iPhone. They sold out the first stocks of the iPad. They make their own desktop hardware, own an email service and email client [Mail] as well as desktop software with their iLfe suite of products. So Apple already has the customer relationships across a wider suite of hardware, software and services than Google. Microsoft would still be dominant in this category but have struggled to really make the connections pay pre Bing. Yahoo only has a search engine and some additional web services that seem to wither once purchased (MyBlogLog anyone?)

Where Apple has a further advantage is their connection in the living room of homes. Whilst the Apple TV is small beer in terms of sales and revenue, it is still a connection that could only be rivalled by the Windows Media Center. Whilst Apple still define the Apple TV as a hobby they aren’t cancelling it, more trying to work out what to do with it. Could this be their Trojan Horse?

3. Traffic

The Apple site is a well respected and active site on the web. With estimated traffic figures for Apple.com standing around 5.6m visits per day [source: statbrain.com] it is a long way off Google [estimated at 118m] but much closer to AOL with an estimated 8.267m visit per day. On a pure comparison basis, Apple would not be able to compete with Google, Yahoo or MSN for traffic. Nor should it need to. If we look back at the AOL comparison for size of site [if Apple.com just became a search engine which would of course not happen] we could see promising income. For Q4 2009 (the latest AOL earnings report) advertising income stood at $500m. [source] Basic maths says that’s a billion dollars a year business – something that could be achievable for Apple.

Again, taking AOL as a comparison, not all Apple’s income would come from the core search engine. iWeb, the website building tool from Apple has the ability to include advertising widgets. These widgets at the moment are Google AdSense based, so the ability is already there to include an Apple advertising widget to generate third party income. Creating their own search search widget to further harness search traffic and resultant income would not be difficult to achieve.

This ability to harness channels is already taking shape with the iAd platform for the iPhone and iPad apps. AppleInsider (very slow link at time of publishing) suggests revenue from iAd could generate add another 8% to their share price. The combination of factors here is the perfect example of what could be done with a search engine.

This joining of the dots [the iPad/iPhone, editorial approval and distribution of apps with the app store and the aderving capabilities of iAd] could be replicated across more of Apple’s products to make a very strong ‘funnel’ to populate their own search engine. Analysis from Trefis suggests that the iAd could earn Apple $2bn in gross ad revenue. If that is pure mobile related income, what could be generated from a search engine?

For the sake of balance, the potential revenue from iAd was based on rate estimates from AdMob which were challenged by BusinessInsider.com as being way too high in this current economy.

4. Brand Loyalty

If we were comparing just traffic, Apple would be a niche player. But the brand loyalty of Apple is huge, with new disciples being made with every new iPad sale. Not only could Apple be harnessing its various strands of user connections but it could also be building on the relationship and trust Apple has with its consumers. Can you tell me any other site that gets people so excited when it goes DOWN? This has to be a strong card for Apple to play.

Looking at the list of 100 global brands for 2009, Apple was ranked 20th best Global brand by Interbrand. Google was 7th, Microsoft was 3rd. Yahoo was not featured.

5. Ad Serving

I believe this is important enough to warrant its own point. You may recall back in 2007 that all the main search engines acquired their own ad-serving products. Google acquired Doubleclick for $3.1bn, Microsoft bought aQantive for $6bn which included the Atlas ad server. Yahoo moved to purchase Blue Lithium an ad network with proprietary technology and took full ownership of Right Media.

These deals were to connect the supply chain between ads, advertisers and the sites themselves. Again, as we have seen with the purchase of Quattro Wireless that became iAd, Apple have connected the parts to manage the supply chain to in app advertising. I am not an expert in ad serving but I would expect that once you have a good ad server, there shouldn’t be too much work to make it connect to web pages, rather than mobile devices.

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So, I believe Apple have many of the key elements in place to create their own search engine play. Consumers with Apple devices are already searching. Whilst Apple will be getting third party revenue from Google AdSense it will be a lot smaller than if Apple had its own direct stream.

To me it seems a logical extension, to join the dots. But for the purpose of balance, here are a few reasons why not.

i. Mobile is the future, why invest in old technology?

A recent ‘future internet’ prediction from Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanely pointed firmly to a future Internet dominated by mobile access, so why bother investing in parts that may be redundant in five years? Well, people still search – they are just doing it from more platforms, of which Apple has the bases covered. Even if in time the search function is packaged as a dedicated app, a search engine will need to be built.

ii. Apple is making so much money, why bother?

Yup, Apple is making a lot of money. The share price is at an all time high, with expectation building for it to reach $300 per share.  With many of the components already in place, it shouldn’t have to be a huge investment to create a search engine upon which ads can be served and income can be generated.

iii. Build or Buy?

Search engines aren’t easy to build from scratch, and the skills required probably aren’t working in Cupertino right now. So an acquisition may be worth looking at. AOL has gone from being the world’s largest ISP to a ‘niche’ player in the market. With a market cap of $3bn compared to Apple’s $247bn this could be a an easy purchase, but AOL don’t have a search engine of their own. Ask Jeeves? Since Jeeves handed all but the front page over to Google it has slowly lost its relevance. With the growth in ‘personal content’ (aka user reviews and UGC) is there a new role for a ‘human edited search engine’? Ask Steve anyone?

iv. Shareholder Sentiment

The challenge with creating a search engine to compete with Google is the comparison with Google. Both Yahoo and Microsoft achieve great revenue from their search products which if they weren’t compared to Google would be huge news. Instead, because of Google’s success at better monetising the search arena, Yahoo and Microsoft get unfavourably compared against Google, which doesn’t always work well for shareholder sentiment. Should Apple decide to go down the search route, they may get more negative reaction than positive. As a golden stock right now, they may not be keen to jeopardize this.

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So, these were just my thoughts. It seems to be me that Apple are in prime position to create a new revenue stream from search. They have many of the component parts already in place, and cash to build or buy what they don’t have. If we look at the ‘big three’ search engines (Google, Microsoft, Yahoo) it seems to me that Yahoo is the most vulnerable. It has been slow to cement strategic investments and lacks the hardware/software/services route to connect with customers that Microsoft has and Google is rapidly building. Could we see iSearch as a potential search player?

I’ve got one. OK?

Mobile Apps are set to become even bigger business in 2010. With Apple already generating a reported $200m in app revenue (that’s only 30% of the pie) Google’s Market and Nokia’s Ovi Store have both opened this year to tap into this booming market. Whilst some way behind in scale, I believe these app stores represent a signifcant shift in mobile consumption and in turn the actual business model for mobile companies. No longer will mobile ‘phone promotions be purely about what the ‘phone can do but what you can do ‘on the ‘phone.’

The latest promotions from Apple and from Nokia both concentrate on the apps, rather than the handsets.

Joining the bandwagon today is Samsung, which will open an App Store for independent apps next year. To quote the FT,

Samsung’s first smartphones using its bada platform will be released in the first half of next year, together with an “app store” that is meant to include at least 1,000 applications.

The latest research from emarketer also points to next year and beyond as ‘big’ for app revenue. I quote,

Mobile applications are a major channel for content delivery to mobile devices. In September 2009, the Yankee Group estimated that US paid smartphone application revenues would reach $4.2 billion in 2013—an order of magnitude above the 2009 estimate of $343 million.

In time it will be the mobile ‘phone companies without mobile app capability [and associated stores] that will be the laggards.

OK, the Google Android ‘phone has been around for over a year now and has seen limited success but with real potential. As a die hard iPhone lover I had shunned an Android until I felt I really should understand where this is heading.

In the past week we have seen announcements that some major US carriers are going to be offering Android Smart ‘phones before Christmas. This news just adds to the reasons why we need to be paying very close attention to Google Android. If you pay attention to the Google share price (it has almost doubled in six months) you will see that some of the fuel for this growth in share price is the Android roll out.

So, here are my five reasons you need to pay attention:

1. Network Access. Verizon Wireless, the largest US carrier will start selling two Android handsets before Christmas, one HTC, one Motorla. Good news for these handsets, bad news for Apple, RIM (Blackberry) in the handset department. Bad news also for Microsoft whose outdated Windows Mobile is being shunned in favour of Google. Bearing in mind the choices Verizon no doubt had, and regardless of how many Android handsets are sold this Christmas, this deal should be seen as a strong endorsement for the future of Android.

(The iPhone is still available only on AT&T in the USA. The Verizon deal offers a very real alternative to those people looking for a s,art ‘phone but not necessarily a Blackberry. The deal with Orange (and soon Orange & T-Mobile) in the UK means this is less of a threat on this side of the pond)

2. The Google Android Operating System is free to handset manufacturers. In this market, free is a very good incentive for handset manufacturers to try your software. Remember, Windows Mobile is outdated (and probably costs a lot of money), and the iPhone software is and will remain exclusive to Apple. If handset manufacturers and carriers are looking for the iPhone killer, they have the potential to gain one with little upfront investment or risk.

3. Android is Open Source. iPhone is not. Whilst both systems have app stores, the open source structure offers a greater ability to really see where this can go. I feel it is important also as the Android system, its apps, and the app market (on the ‘phone is atrocious) is not as polished as the iPhone. By making this open source it puts the power and responsibility for growth into the hands of a much larger connected audience which could see step change improvements as we move forward.

To quote Scott Morrison, WSJ

Mobile apps are critical for two reasons. Yankee Group estimates the U.S. mobile app market will reach $4.2 billion in 2013; meanwhile, consumers are likely to be drawn to the mobile phone platform that boasts the greatest number of apps. However, it becomes a chicken-or-egg debate because developers will turn their attention to Android as more people buy those phones, but consumers might be reluctant to buy Android phones without a robust set of apps.

4. Android is Hardware Agnostic. In part because of its open source nature, the operating system can be tweaked to deliver the right customer experience for each carrier and the ability to run on different ‘phones. If we look at two other options, the iPhone and the Blackberry – you can only use the iphone system on the iphone or the ipod touch. If you don’t like the iphone then tough, and in the States, if you like the iPhone but not AT&T – tough. The Blackberry is similar – whilst there are umpteen different Blackberry styles, its still a Blackberry. Android can appear on any network (subject to contracts) and on (virtually) any ‘phone type. Of course, the handset choice is limited at this stage but that’s because of the audience size – as Android increases in popularity so the investment in hardware will follow from manufacturers.

5. It connects seamlessly with your Google accounts. If you look at any of the major search engines over the past 10 years, they have all worked to grow the reasons to stay on the site, not leave it. With Google this has been the investments with iGoogle, Maps, YouTube, Docs etc. So Google are taking this strategy mobile, giving you the ability to use Google as you would on a computer. This in itself is nothing new, nor is it fully harnessed (I don’t get the same experience on Google Finance, for example, as I do on the computer) but with the sheer size of Google users (and growth) this starts to become an attractive option, to have all of your ‘stuff’ in one place. Android needs to work hard to ensure there are additional benefits or greater harmony between computer and ‘phone (vs. a Google app on the iPhone or Blackberry) for it to become a true killer. I believe this is a strong point moving forward, but one that needs to work right now.

The Future’s Bright The Future’s Android

There are many reasons not to like Android right now, not least the lack of polish, the small number of users and the lack of apps. BUT the reason you need to pay attention is that these will be fixed. The Verizon deal is big news as it paves the way for much quicker potential growth. If growth kicks off, then in will come more manufacturers, more developers and more money. Once this happens we will see a snowball effect with growth coming quicker and quicker.

Make no mistake, Google are in this to make money. It is no accident there is a search button the handset – they want to be your partner in mobile surfing and mobile searching. If you watch their video for Android 1.6 you will see they focus on your ability to search.Their investment now will pay dividends in a few years. If I was a betting man, I’d say those are going to be big dividends.

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With rumours growing that Apple will release a tablet computer this month, The team at thenextweb have released some early videos demonstrating how the interface could look. Here is the first of a number of videos..

The videos are actually the work of an anonymous grad student from Georgia who has gone to great lengths to prepare the videos and to speculate as to how the interface and apps will work. Follow the full story and watch the rest of the videos at thenextweb.com.

These are my bookmarks for June 8th from 20:41 to 20:55:

• Is this the new iPhone? – Sure, it's Palm's big day, but that doesn't mean the Apple rumor mill is taking a break — check out this pic of what might be the new iPhone set to drop on Monday. Yep, that's a matte black casing with no chrome border, a what looks to be a front-facing camera, and iPhone OS 3.0, so it certainly lines up with what we've heard — but it wouldn't exactly take a Photoshop master to do this one up either. One more pic at the read link — anyone believing this?
• IPhone OS 3.0 Coming on June 17 – PC World – iPhone 3.0 will be a free release for all iPhone customers — both original iPhone users and iPhone 3G users will be able to download it at no charge once it's released. iPod touch customers can download the new release for $10, and it will work on first- and second-generation iPod touch models.
• Lifehacker – 3Banana Keep Notes Tidy with Hash Tags – Note Taking – If you're looking for a simple way to take, store, and share notes in the cloud, 3Banana makes organizing your notes easy with notes based on in-text hashtags.

These are my links for May 31st through June 1st:

• Google Wave Drips With Ambition. A New Communication Platform For A New Web. – Yesterday, during the Google I/O keynote, Google’s VP of Engineering, Vic Gundotra, laid out a grand vision for the direction Google sees the web heading towards with the move to the HTML 5 standard. While we’re not there yet, all the major browser players besides Microsoft are aligned and ready for the next phase, which will include such things as the ability to run 3D games and movies in the browser without additional plug-ins. But Google wants to take it one step further with a brand new method of communication for this new era. It’s called Google Wave.
• Micro Persuasion: Visits to Twitter Search Soar, Indicating Social Search Has Arrived – According to data from Compete.com visits to the Twitter search page grew more than 400% in the last six months. This sub-domain alone recorded 2.7M unique visitors in April, up from just shy of 536,000 in October. Even more remarkable, traffic to the site, which is tucked away, grew 24% in April.
• Freshen me up – A nice blog about stuff…
• 100+ Incredible Twitter Backgrounds | cheth Studios – As the Title suggests these are the Best designed, kickass Twitter Backgrounds! I know that I cannot make justice to this I might have missed out some great ones, so do comment and let us know!
• Monday Note – media, tech and business stories – A potentially interesting blog
• Revealed: where Google’s data centres are around the world | Technology | guardian.co.uk – Analysis of data released by Google shows where its data centres – the places that keep it going .
• Zivity » The home of independent artists, models and rock-stars. GET EXPOSED. – A social network for artists, models & musicians. By paying a $10 subscription one gets the ability to view great work and vote whilst generating micro income for content providers. So fr the majority of the images on the homepage (I have not subscribed) include scantily clad females..
• New Economics of Advertising: 101 Twitter Tools to Help You Achieve All Your Goals – Twitter has become an incredible tool not just for communication, but for improving your life. Anyone can use it to expand their social circle, promote their side business, keep their coursework organized, and more. Whether you want to achieve your Twitter goals, or just use it as a tool to achieve others, these tools will help you get there.

These are my bookmarks for May 31st from 09:31 to 14:50:

• Monday Note – media, tech and business stories – A potentially interesting blog
• Revealed: where Google’s data centres are around the world | Technology | guardian.co.uk – Analysis of data released by Google shows where its data centres – the places that keep it going .
• Zivity » The home of independent artists, models and rock-stars. GET EXPOSED. – A social network for artists, models & musicians. By paying a $10 subscription one gets the ability to view great work and vote whilst generating micro income for content providers. So fr the majority of the images on the homepage (I have not subscribed) include scantily clad females..
• New Economics of Advertising: 101 Twitter Tools to Help You Achieve All Your Goals – Twitter has become an incredible tool not just for communication, but for improving your life. Anyone can use it to expand their social circle, promote their side business, keep their coursework organized, and more. Whether you want to achieve your Twitter goals, or just use it as a tool to achieve others, these tools will help you get there.
• Listing all ideas – Ideablob: where ideas grow – Where business ideas have the best chance to succeed